The Faction is an award-winning ensemble reinventing the classics for the 21st Century. They are known for their stripped-back aesthetic, placing the actors at the centre of the empty space. They use their ensemble's innovative and dynamic physicality to create the world of the play.
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The Company
The Faction was created by Mark Leipacher in 2008, and became a registered charity in 2011. Their first production was Richard III at the Brockley Jack Theatre, London in October 2008. The Faction is now led by two Artistic Directors; Mark Leipacher and Rachel Valentine Smith, and is supported by a core ensemble of eleven actors and associate artists.
The Ensemble
Alex Guiney
Amelia Donkor
Anna-Maria Nabirye
Christopher Hughes
Christopher York
Clare Latham
Gareth Fordred
Jude Owusu
Kate Sawyer
Lachlan McCall
Natasha Rickman
Next steps
After the success of the first four shows The Faction attracted the attention of several venues interested in producing their work. In early 2010 the company took a departure from Shakespeare and began work on a major new project to translate, adapt and stage the collected works of the celebrated German playwright Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. Leipacher and Millar, a graduate in German studies from the University of Manchester, translated and adapted Kabale und Liebe, which was performed as Intrigue/Love at The Southwark Playhouse - the first central London venue the company have visited - in summer 2010. The show was directed by Leipacher, and the cast included Millar, Sawyer, Mellett, Fordred and Delaney, as well as company newcomers Alice Henley, Cerith Flinn and Steven Blake. In November 2010 the company staged Schiller's debut play Die Raueber (The Robbers), again adapted by Millar and Leipacher, at the New Diorama Theatre in central London, later touring to Theatre Royal Bath to excellent reviews. It was announced in late 2010 that the next Schiller play the company will perform will be Mary Stuart, due to be produced as part of a rep season in late 2011. "The Demetrius Project" will see Schiller's unfinished piece, Demetrius, completed by a team of writers and performed by the company.
Leipacher's own adaptations of The Odyssey, Arabian Nights and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales were produced in late 2010 and throughout 2011 as part of the Bridewell Theatre's Lunchbox Plays.
Expansion and The Ensemble
As Artistic Director, Leipacher has always expressed a keenness to have a core ensemble at the heart of the company. Over the course of 2008–2013 the company will have produced over twelve plays, including work by Schiller, Strindberg and back to Shakespeare when the company returned to Brockwell Park in summer 2011 for their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which also toured to Theatre Royal Bath and Burnley Youth Theatre.
In 2011 and 2012 the company staged their first rep season, with a small company of actors presenting Mary Stuart, Miss Julie and a revival of 2009's Twelfth Night. Owing to great success, Mary Stuart returned to the New Diorama for a limited run in September 2012.
The company's second rep season was staged at the New Diorama in 2012 and 2013. The plays were Daniel Millar and Mark Lepiacher's new translation of Schiller's Fiesco, Ranjit Bolt's new version of Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters and Gareth Jandrell's new version of Federico García Lorca's Blood Wedding.
Rep Season 3 was announced in Autumn 2013 and will include productions of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Gareth Jandrell's Greek drama Thebes, and Schiller's The Robbers, a remount of Daniel Millar and Mark Leipacher's successful 2011 adaptation.
Awards
On November 1, 2011 the company, along with New Diorama Theatre were presented with a Peter Brook Award for Equity Best Ensemble for their production of The Robbers.